When I was a lad November the 5th was Guy Fawkes Day or Firework day. It was a big thing. We’d save up our money to buy penny bangers and threepenny rockets.
We’d make a Guy out of old clothes stuffed with newspaper, a head out of a carrier bag with eyes drawn on, or a balloon, put it in an old pushchair and take it down town to beg pennies off the folk coming in and out of shops.
‘Penny for the Guy!’
With all our loot we’d go to the newsagent and buy fireworks. We had such fun.
Every kid in the village would collect wood and build a huge bonfire on the green. We’d scour woods, garages and back yards. A lot of stuff that wasn’t waste was simply ‘borrowed’. Everything was chucked on it and invariably some fool would try to prematurely set fire to it! We had to post guards. The bonfire was an excuse. We’d spend weeks building it, put our Guy on top, and love watching those flames scorching up into the night sky with all those sparks flying, the heat and roar. Magical.
Penny bangers dominated our purchases. We’d build dams and blow them up, put bangers in apples and throw them down culverts, tie bangers to rockets and launch them, play wars with them and throw them at each other like grenades. Great fun. Exciting. Dangerous.
We also had Jumping Jacks. We learnt that if you untwined the cotton on a Jumping Jack and straightened it out you got one hell of a banger. That was fun.
We had Catherine Wheels that spun round and whizzed, Roman Candles that shot out balls of fire (we would fire them at each other in our war games) and rockets!
All of these were more expensive. We could buy boxes of penny bangers though. They were our basic ammunition.
As a kid I didn’t have much idea what it was all about. I knew the name Guy Fawkes and knew that he had tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament. I wasn’t sure if we were celebrating the fact that at least someone had tried to blow the bastard politicians up or that he had failed!
As for Halloween – you can stuff it! That didn’t exist in our universe! Some American crap imported from Ireland. We had Firework Day!!
I later found out about the horribly religious nastiness. The ruling Protestants had cruelly persecuted the Catholics. There was gruesome torture and public burnings. A group of Catholics had plotted to blow up the ruling government.
All as bad as each other with their horrendous weapons of torture, confessions and public executions designed to cause as much pain as they possibly could.
Given half a chance Religious Fanatics are the most cruel people on the planet!!
I often wonder what Jesus would have made of it!
Christians always quote Jesus, gentle and mild, when not in power but revert to the Old Testament for blood, fire and retribution when they get the chance.
Guy Fawkes Day was all about torture, death and religious fanaticism. Agony was the backdrop.
In yesteryear those bonfires would have had real people burning and shrieking in agony.
This year all the fireworks are in the USA. Another bunch of religious fanatics, with their Project 2025, are looking to gain power through a Nazi fascist. I can’t help thinking that a lot more people are going to be burned before the year’s out!